exploration and settlement of the Americas

When Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in 1492, he hoped to reach eastern Asia. He thought he had done so when he landed on an island in the Caribbean Sea. In fact he had opened up to Europeans a new world with two continents—North America and South America—and many islands. Many more Europeans followed Columbus to the Americas. Most were from Spain, Portugal, France, and England.

The Americas were named not for Columbus but for Amerigo Vespucci. He was an Italian merchant and explorer who was one of the first people to realize that the land Columbus found was not a part of Asia.

Vikings

Columbus was probably not the first European to reach America. Vikings from northern Europe traveled to the coast of what is now Canada in about ad 1000. The Vikings did not stay long, however.

Columbus

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By the time of Columbus, Europeans had traveled to the East and explored many parts of Asia. Many other Europeans admired the cloths, spices, and medicines that the explorers brought back with them. They wanted more of these goods. But the voyage to Asia was long and expensive. Educated Europeans knew that the world was round. They thought that by sailing west, they could find a shorter route to Asia.

Between 1492 and 1504, Christopher Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus reached Central and South America as well as the islands that are now called the West Indies. He never reached Asia, but his trips inspired many others to follow.

Magellan

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Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal did what Columbus had set out to do: he found a western sea route to Asia. He followed the South American coast southward from Brazil. In 1520 he passed around the tip of South America into the Pacific Ocean. Magellan died, but his crew kept sailing west. They went past the southern tip of Africa back to Spain. This was the first voyage around the world.

Later Voyages

In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian working for England, reached Newfoundland, in what is now Canada. In 1535 Jacques Cartier of France sailed from the Atlantic Ocean into Canada on the Saint Lawrence River.

In 1610 the Englishman Henry Hudson sailed into the large bay in Canada that is now called Hudson Bay. Hudson was trying to find a water route through North America to the Pacific Ocean. People called this unknown route the Northwest Passage. The first explorer to find this passage was the Norwegian Roald Amundsen in 1906.

The riches of the Americas attracted many early settlers, or colonists. Some worked on their own, while others worked for European trading companies. Both groups wanted to make money selling valuable things back to Europe. Gold and silver were the most valuable products of South America and Mexico. Further to the north, the furs of animals were the most valuable products.

As Europeans began settling the land, they met many Native Americans. Their relations were often friendly. But Native Americans grew angry as Europeans took over more land. Wars between settlers and Native Americans killed thousands. Many more Native Americans died from smallpox and other European diseases.

Meanwhile, European settlers began to grow the crops that Native Americans grew, including corn, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, peanuts, and tobacco. Europeans also brought plants like sugarcane and coffee to the Americas and found that they grew well there. Some Europeans set up large farms and sold their crops back to Europe.

Some of the first European farmers captured Native Americans and forced them to work as slaves. African slaves eventually replaced them. The Portuguese brought in Africans to work as slaves starting in 1502. The English were active slave traders also. The slave trade did not end until the 1800s.

Spanish Colonies

The earliest Spanish settlements were in the West Indies. The Spanish set up Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola in 1496. It was the first capital of Spain’s colonial empire, called New Spain.

In 1513 Vasco de Balboa traveled across Central America. He became the first European to view the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. Six years later Hernán Cortés made his first attack on the Aztec Empire in Mexico. In 1533 Francisco Pizarro took Peru away from the Inca people. The Spanish stole gold and silver from the native empires and shipped it back to Spain.

Spain’s colonial empire became the biggest in the Americas. At its peak it included the largest Caribbean islands, all of Mexico and most of Central America, large sections of South America, Florida, and the southwestern quarter of what is now the United States.

English Colonies

The important English colonies were on the Atlantic coast of North America. In 1607 merchants from the Virginia Company founded Jamestown. This was the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Other English settlers soon founded Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England. These colonies were unusual. The people who started them, called Puritans, had reasons besides making money. They wanted freedom to practice their own forms of Christianity. They could not find this freedom in Europe.

The English settled other parts of the Americas, too. Starting in 1670, the English traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company set up trading posts in Canada. In the Caribbean Sea, England had settlements on several islands. The largest was Jamaica, which England seized from Spain in 1655. The English settled Belize in Central America in 1638. Scattered settlements in South America united to form British Guiana in 1831.

French Colonies

France’s settlements in North America were known as New France. Most of these settlements were in what is now Canada. The French explored widely, made friends with Native Americans, and built forts and trading posts. The fur trade became the basis of New France’s economy. In the late 1600s and early 1700s the French captured many trading posts from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

In 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec as the first permanent French settlement. One French explorer, the Sieur de La Salle, floated down the Mississippi River in 1682 and claimed all the land it drained.

France also claimed islands in the Caribbean Sea, including what is now Haiti. In the mid-1600s France founded French Guiana on the northeastern coast of South America.

France and England (which united with Scotland to form Great Britain in 1707) often fought over land in North America. One such fight became known as the French and Indian War. At the end of that war, in 1763, Great Britain won control of French Canada. It also won all other French territory east of the Mississippi River. France sold its territories farther west to the United States in 1803.

Other Colonies

The Portuguese were among the earliest explorers in the Americas. However, the only colony they set up was Brazil, in South America.

In about 1626 the Dutch built a settlement in North America called New Amsterdam. The English took over New Amsterdam in 1664 and renamed it New York. The Dutch also set up colonies in the Caribbean.

Russia came to North America from the west. The Russians set up their first permanent settlement in Alaska in 1784. The Russians traded for furs as far south as California. In 1867 Russia sold Alaska to the United States.

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